After Toyota Hiluxes completed 1–2 within the Prologue and Stage #1 of the Sonora Rally, the Prodrive Hunters responded with a vengeance on Tuesday as all 4 occupied the highest 5 in T1.
Guerlain Chicherit led a lot of the stage earlier than Sébastien Loeb went on to set the quickest time of at 1:28:28. The Hilux of Stage #1 winner Nasser Al-Attiyah was the lone non-Hunter within the high 5 as he completed second and a pair of:45 again of Loeb, consequently dropping the general result in him although the margin is simply three seconds.
Brothers Marcos and Cristian Baumgart, W2RC newcomers who’re racing Hunters for the primary time, dramatically improved from their eighth and ninth in Stage #1 to respectively end third and fourth. The duo chased down Yazeed Al-Rajhi earlier than the latter’s brake issues pressured him to cease and make repairs, upon which the Baumgarts capitalised earlier than getting by Chicherit within the closing sector. Regardless of dropping so many positions, Chicherit was in a position to muster a fifth.
The highest degree of FIM additionally noticed a shakeup as Daniel Sanders dominated RallyGP to take the general lead from Stage #1 winner Tosha Schareina. The latter now trails by 1:15.
Nonetheless, Sanders might be on his personal for the remainder of the rally as GasGas team-mate Sam Sunderland crashed on the twenty-fourth kilometre and harm his knee and nostril. Sunderland’s W2RC title defence has been suffering from depressing fortune that included breaking his shoulder only one stage into the Dakar Rally and his ankle days earlier than the Abu Dhabi Desert Problem.
Skyler Howes wrecked eighteen kilometres into the stage and suffered a shoulder damage, ending his hopes of a second consecutive Sonora Rally victory. Each riders have been subsequently airlifted collectively again to the bivouac for therapy. Whereas not the vegetation-filled leg of Monday, the margin for error remained low and Howes’ Husqvarna companion Luciano Benavides, who completed eighth, described Tuesday’s route as “a loopy stage with lots of damaged pistes, which made it actually tough to guage in locations.”
In T3, Stage #1 winner Mattias Ekström misplaced the lead within the closing stretch to a pair of Purple Bulls as Francisco López Contardo and Mitch Guthrie received by him, although Ekström stays atop the general. López, again within the W2RC pursuit after skipping Abu Dhabi, completes a Purple Bull sweep of the 2 UTV courses as Rokas Baciuška strengthens his grip on T4.
Within the two-man Quad battle between Laisvydas Kancius and Rodolfo Guillioli, the latter trailed by almost ten minutes as they hit the ultimate checkpoint earlier than discovering his stride to beat his rival by thirty-seven seconds. Kancius nonetheless leads him within the total by 16:31.
The stage was shortened from its unique 286-km Particular Stage distance to 161 km attributable to security issues. Such a predicament had additionally pressured the beginning of Stage #1 to be delayed.
Stage #2 winners
All instances and outcomes unofficial as of article publication.
